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This wholle cruising thing seems to have hit a nerve. In our experience they are about the least expensive "all inclusive' (I know some are not) vacation you can take, especially if you go for a less expensive cabin. There was a time 20-30 years ago when they seemed quite "special". Mass marketing and mega ships has pretty well killed that idea.To each his own.

I am sorry to hear about your Carnival Experience. I am with you, their responses were not quite what I would have hoped for. Carnival is not a favorite of ours. But I would have thought that they could have handled things a little better than they did.

We have had two positive past experiences with Royal Caribbean that make us want to be loyal to them. Two instances where they went over and beyond what we really expected of them

We took a "Mardi Gras" Cruise out of Galvestion several years ago on the Rhapsody of the Seas. We were supposed to sail from Galvestion up the Mississippi river and dock next to Jackson Square for three days of Mardi Gras, and then sail to Cozumel and back to Galveston on a 7 day trip. Well, the first night of the trip they announced that the Mississippi River was closed to all boat traffic due to a collision between two barges at the mouth of the river. A boat with thousands of gallons of fuel was submerged in the mouth of the river and six men where presumed dead. We would not be going to New Orleans. Instead they took us to beautiful tropical Gulfport, MS. We docked among the freighters. Things didn't look really promising for a great trip. Then RC announced that they had hired busses to bus us to New Orleans. They ran buses every 15 mins 24 hours a day for three days for anyone who wanted to experience Mardi Gras. You could basically go and come at any time. If you chose to stay on board they offered all kinds of entertainment and cheap drinks. The cruise turned out to be one of the best we have ever been on. We met and really bonded with some great people, made a couple of trips into Mardi Gras. RC really turned the situation into a positive.

Two years ago my Father-in-Law passed away very suddenly and we were actually planning to leave on a RC cruise the day after he passed away. We did not have insurance on the trip! We felt like we had just lost the money spent on the trip and were just going to write it off to lesson learned. Then our travel agent said it would not hurt to write a letter to RC and explain why we missed the cruise. My husband wrote a nice letter to them. He told them we had been on several (I think we had done about 10 RC cruises at that time,) cruises with them and the circumstances of our missing the trip. He asked if they ever sailed out of a TX with an empty cabin please consider us! He told them we would except any cabin on any cruise. They responded and said to send a copy of the death certificate and they would send us a voucher for the amount of the missed cruise to apply to a future cruise. Which we got and used on a cruise about six months later.

Back to your fog incident. We have recently heard that the Voyager of the Seas will be leaving Galveston in 2011 and that RC will not longer be sailing out of Galveston. The fog issue is one reason they are leaving that market. Seems the fog has just been a nightmare issue this year.

__________________"It's tough to make predictions, especially when it involves the future." ~Attributed to many
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is." ~(perhaps by) Yogi Berra
"Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge."~ Lau tzu

If this was the first time Carnival had experienced fog, then I could see they may not have an answer, however, it is not the first, I don't think it is even the first this year. Royal Caribbean scheduled arrival time at Galveston was 3:00am! I guess they plan on plenty of time to embrace the fog.

__________________
If it is after 5:00 when I post I reserve the right to disavow anything I posted.

Royal Caribbean's schedule is the same as Carnivals. They arrive prior to 7 am and they empty the ship by 10 am and they start reboarding at about 11 am. The ships usually are fogged out or in at the same times.

Cruisinthru,
That may be, but on the Feb 27th cruise, the Captain announced that arrival at Galveston would be 3:00 am, and departure would commence at 7 am, and it did. Of course the dead body went first, very early. The ambulance was still there at 6:30.

__________________
If it is after 5:00 when I post I reserve the right to disavow anything I posted.

If this was the first time Carnival had experienced fog, then I could see they may not have an answer, however, it is not the first, I don't think it is even the first this year. Royal Caribbean scheduled arrival time at Galveston was 3:00pm! I guess they plan on plenty of time to embrace the fog.

Royal Carribbeans scheduled arrival time has never been 3 PM. They arrive at or before 7 AM, unless there is fog!

As I said earlier in this thread we were on the Carnival Conquest when it was fogged out of Galveston in Jan. 2008. We woke up to fog so thick you could not see the balcony railings or the water below. I have never seen such thick fog. They said we were sitting 17 miles out of Galveston and the port was closed. Believe me, I didn't want to see that ship move! The fog did not start lifting until about 10:30 AM.

Well, then the captain lied. What can I say. They arrived well before 7 am. Weather it was scheduled or not, I don't know, but telling someone that was on the boat that something did not happen does not seem real smart. It would be like me telling you one of your cruises did not go where you said it did.

in that post it should have been 3 am.

__________________
If it is after 5:00 when I post I reserve the right to disavow anything I posted.

Royal Carribbeans scheduled arrival time has never been 3 PM. They arrive at or before 7 AM, unless there is fog!

As I said earlier in this thread we were on the Carnival Conquest when it was fogged out of Galveston in Jan. 2008. We woke up to fog so thick you could not see the balcony railings or the water below. I have never seen such thick fog. They said we were sitting 17 miles out of Galveston and the port was closed. Believe me, I didn't want to see that ship move! The fog did not start lifting until about 10:30 AM.

Standard arrival time is at or before 7AM. So they may have got in a little earlier than 7 AM. No one got off the boat prior to 7 AM. Oh gosh, maybe they removed a body, but hey, no one walked off prior to 7 AM.

Arrival time has never been 3PM, which I think you stated. The captain didn't fib on that one and neither am I. But somebody did.

Not sure, I haven't followed up with her yet as I only received the second unsatisfactory response from Carnival a few minutes ago.

In Carnival's defense, they did give each passenger a $15 credit to their on-board account. While that was a nice gesture, it does absolutely nothing to answer my concerns about "how will I be treated if this happens again". That is what I really want to know and they are unwilling to answer.

I'm glad they did something for you. They will never be able to tell you that it won't happen again, but hopefully they will get back to you that they are taking some proactive steps to prevent it. DW doesn't like to sell Carnival, I think I can understand why better now.

__________________
JimnJana
"The four most dangerous words in investing are 'This time it's different.'" - Sir John Templeton

The issues you have raised have been shared with the management team. We're very sorry things didn't work out as we all would have liked, however, no further consideration will be given in this matter and it is now deemed closed.

I think they did a nice job in communicating management wants me to go away and leave them alone.

I think they did a nice job in communicating management wants me to go away and leave them alone.

Given that someone typically pays about $100 per person per day on a budget cruise (give or take), losing a half day on the ship should be at least a $50 shipboard credit per person, I would think.

__________________"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?"-- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)

I just returned from an eight day cruise on Carnival Freedom .
Pluses
1- large rooms ( we had a king bed and a couch )
2- Food ( they had lots of food choices from Grill to stir fry to Tandori )
3- entertainment - the shows were okay but they had a comedy club which was fun
4- getting on and off the ship was easy with minimal lines
5- Ports ( Cozumel , Costa Rica & Panama )
6-Giant screen outside showing new movies
Negatives
1- Not enough shaded areas with loungers
2- Lido staff ( The casual eating areas ) not very attentive

Yes, there were obese people but there were also very fit people . The food was good , the rooms were nice and the entertainment was entertaining so all in all it was a great vacation !

Sometimes a cruise (like we took southbound from Alaska) has more than just a "boat" ...

The train trip from Anchorage to Denali is absolutely spectacular! Beautiful scenery and a very nice lunch in the dining car. You can easily book this trip online. The buses into Denali National Park are easy to arrange at the Park center. Hiking too can be arranged there. Also, there are fantastic small ship day cruises into Prince William Sound and also from Seward that you can take to see the glaciers and the sea life. I really enjoyed my time in Alaska with no cruise at all!

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